Fire Daisies
by BreadBoy
Summary: Peetniss through the years. Peeta x Katniss. A bit of fluff. Signature BreadBoy style.
1. Chapter 1: A Gift

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Peeta and Katniss are 11 right now.**

**Peeta's POV**

I've had my eyes on her since four years ago in school when she sang the Valley Song.

I can't work up the nerve to talk to her. She's too beautiful. Too intimidating. She doesn't even _know _how pretty she is. Daddy told me he was in love with her mother.

The girl I love is named Katniss Everdeen.

Her hair is dark brown and always in a braid. It's hard to imagine it down, but I dream of touching it someday. Her eyes are a light gray with flecks of electric blue. I've caught her eye a couple of times. Every time she looks away. I wonder how it is in the Seam. She has a sister named Prim that represents her mother a lot. Katniss looks more like her father, though I've never seen him. But I can guess.

Speaking of her father, he died with Gale Hawthrone's dad.

I don't know what goes on between Gale and Katniss. They don't look like they have a girlfirned-boyfriend relationship, and they're more than friends.

Whatever it is, I'm extremely jealous of Hawthorne.

So right now, I'm walking around the edge between the Merchant kids' houses and the Seam, trying to work up the courage to go to Katniss' house. I know where she lives because I've practically been stalking that beauty for the last five years.

As I'm pacing around the border, I spot a bunch of red dots in the distance in a green field. Was that what I thought it was?

Excited, I ran towards the speckled field and examined the red.

Fire daisies.

Fire daisies mysteriously appear on only _one _day of the year, only in District 12. as mysterious as they were, they were incredibly beautiful to me.

Because they remind me of Katniss.

They are the mirror image of daisies, except the petals are pointed at the ends and they are a bright, fiery red with blackened tips.

Exactly Katniss; bright, raging, and beautiful.

I pick what I think is a nice one and head to Katniss' house.

**Katniss' POV**

****Someone knocks on the door. Prim would get it, but since she's somewhere, and my mother would never get it, so I have no choice to drag myself over to the door. When I open it, blonde, Merchant, confused Peeta Mellark is there with his eyes shut tight and holding something out to me so tightly, his knuckles were white.

A lone beautiful fire daisy was in his hand.

I grabbed it and as I did, my fingers brushed Peeta's. The place where we touched started to burn pleasantly. The fire growing in my stomach was telling me that I liked Peeta.

Did I?

Peeta started to open his eyes when he noticed I accepted his gift. Breathtaking blue, his eyes were. He smiled a little bit.

"Um...See you at school." he said quickly and ran away. My eyes followed him as he ran.

I had a crush on Peeta Mellark.


	2. Chapter 2: You're Beautiful

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Peeta and Katniss are 11 right now.**

**Katniss' POV**

That fire daisy was the only gift I received that I haven't passed down to Prim. I was going to nurse that flower until it died. then I was going to dry it out and still keep it.

I don't know if Peeta likes me back.

I was going to make a stand up to Peeta today and talk to him.

After school, I waited in front of his last class. He saw me right away and his gaze lingered there before I stepped forward.

"Thank you," I said quietly, looking at my only pair of shoes. "The flower is beautiful."

"Like you," he responded, before noticing what he had just said and ran off.

Again.

**Sorry for the short chapter!**

**Will emotionally-unstable Katniss (Ha ha, I don't really think that) figure out Peeta loves her back?**

**Next chapter is the bread scene.**

**YAAAY!**


	3. Chapter 3: Thank You, Peeta

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Peeta and Katniss are 11 right now.**

**Katniss' POV**

_A season later (winter)_

__The family is struggling.

It's cold, and I have no game to hunt for 'cause all those animals are sleeping for the season. I've attempted to create a controlled fire in the middle of the house, but that didn't work out. The only thing I don't tell Mom and Prim is that I'm actually really warm. Just stealing a glance at the dried-up fire daisy in my room makes me burn all over again.

Our only choice is to go into Town and buy food. Since we don't have any money, Mom gave me some baby clothes to sell. I don't know why anyone would want messily hemmed homemade baby clothes, but hopefully there'd be a desperate pregnant Seam woman around here.

I may be warm, but I was starving to the pit of my stomach.

So I pulled on my only jacket and headed out to the houses I knew had women inside. Being rejected over and over again, I went to scrounging in the dumps. When I got to the bakery, I hoped Peeta wasn't watching me. I was picking through their scraps when his mother came out and yelled horrible things about me.

My hunger, cold, _and _extremely offended and hurt feelings all together?

I thought I was going to die right then and there.

Then I heard something sizzling, and a large blow. Then that witch's horrible nagging, not at me. Something about burnt bread. And then beautiful Peeta, with a large bruise on the side of his face. My eyes widened. He could tell everyone at school...

A loaf of warm but burnt bread was in his hands.

I licked my chapped lips hungrily. Seeing Peeta made me a bit warmer, but not warm enough. He broke the bread and threw it somewhere to the pigs, and looked at me.

"Katniss." He knew I was here from the start, and took a beating for me.

**I know this is different from the book. This is my fluffy version.**

I couldn't say anything. He ran towards me in only his shirt, pants, and apron.

"Katniss! Are you okay?" He wrapped his warm arms around me.

_Now _I was warm.

I shook my head no. He gave me the last of the bread.

"I have to go," I whimpered weakly, and staggered off into the blizzard, towards my house, with enough to feed my family.

Thank you, Peeta.

Thank you...

**Read 'n' Review, you know the drill.**

**Next chapter is a huge time skip, into Post-Mockingjay. **

**Two more chapters to go!**


	4. Chapter 4: Dead

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Skip to Post-Mockingjay**

**Peeta's POV**

I wish we could go back to when we were 11.

Now everything is messed up. It's better, but messed up. I was scared of Katniss for almost a year when I returned to 12, scared to hurt her. Being Hijacked just made me love her more. Turns out, it's also the other way around.

Katniss and I purely _love _each other. And Haymitch now has his geese. He talks about them like he hates them more than life (which is pretty hard to top) and when you see him feeding them, he's pouring his heart and soul into the words he tells them.

We sleep together, but Katniss and I don't live together.

Yet.

Because I have a surprise for her tonight.

We sleep peacefully. Usually Katniss still has nightmares every night, and it's my job to wake her up and calm her down. I don't mind. Like I said a few years back, my dreams are mainly about losing her. When I wake up and sees she's here, I'm fine.

Today she doesn't have nightmares.

That's wonderful, that happens like, once a year.

And she's had that last month.

When I wake up, Katniss is awake.

Her eyes are open.

"Good morning, beautiful."

Katniss doesn't move.

"Katniss?" I shake her arm gently. This gets me worried. I look into her eyes.

Stone cold. No emotion.

_Dead._


	5. Chapter 5: Gone

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**This is it! The final chapter of Fire Daisies!**

**Peeta's POV**

A tear escapes my eye.

I lost Katniss.

I'm afraid to touch her now. I'm too afraid to not feel a pulse and confirm her death even harder. I'm too afraid to not hear her heart, the heart she claimed was mine many times before.

I lost _my _Katniss.

"Katniss..." I whisper.

The last thing I do is push her eyelids down, like she did to little Rue in the 74th.

I cover my face in my hands like a kindergartner and start crying.

Sobbing.

I feel a warm hand, unmistakably Katniss' touch my arm and tug.

Stupid hallucinations.

"Peeta," her voice rings through the air like a charm.

Horrible hallucinations.

Then her hands pushing my hands out of my face and crashing her lips to mine.

Definitely not a hallucination.

I pull away and touch her face, before crying once again vulnerably and dropping my head on her shoulder.

She's not gone.

What are you crying for?

**Katniss' POV**

Peeta crying was the worst thing I've ever seen. It was so...painful.

I kissed him and made it all better, or that's what I thought. He cried into my neck while I wrapped an arm around his head and hugged his body with the other.

"Shh, Peeta. I'm here. I just had such a bad nightmare I couldn't even scream this time. All I could do was be paralyzed temporarily." I explained.

Worst.

Nightmare.

Ever.

"Okay..." Peeta choked. He pulled away to look at my face again. I took this time to study his.

His perfect nose, soft lips, pale skin, handsome jaw and amazing blue eyes...

_You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know._

It was more than the looks. It was _him._

"Peeta. Really, stop. You're hurting me by just looking at you." I told him, and he stopped crying. That was my Peeta, doing anything for me.

He got up and left the house.

That was unusual.

He never didn't say goodbye or forget to make me fresh cheese buns in the morning.

Something was wrong.

I went through the whole day in my pajamas.

Peeta never came to visit.

At one point, I cried. What did I do wrong? I knew. Like Haymitch said, I didn't deserve him. when he saw me 'dead', he probably figured out this mystery of life and left me just like that.

Peeta Mellark, gone from me forever.


	6. Chapter 6: The Return of the Games

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**HAHA!**

**Tricked you!**

**there is not only 5 chapters.**

**More chapters to come.**

**Katniss' POV**

****I sat on the couch all day. It just seemed so unlikely for my sweet, loving Peeta to leave me just like that. I had gone through the choices; maybe he felt the coming of a bad episode and wanted to get away. But he wouldn't be gone for that long, would he?

When I wiggled into bed without Peeta, the other side of the bed felt so empty. So _cold. _I didn't dare take the middle. Peeta's spot would be Peeta's forever, whether he comes back or not.

I lay there, cloaked in cold and darkness, until my house telephone rang. I went down to get the call.

"Paylor here. We are just signaling to you the return of the Hunger Games. I just thought you should know, Ms. Everdeen. A hovervraft should be at your door now. We require experienced Victors to make this year's Games _very _interesting. The Quell was a flop. We are redoing it. Peeta Mellark will be the male tribute for your district. Thank you. Please head out to the hovercraft."

The line went dead.

Speechless.

Paylor is a traitor.

I have to kill Peeta Mellark.

**Sorry for the short chap!**


	7. Chapter 7: Happenings

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Katniss POV:**

I went into the hovercraft in shock. Peeta was already in there, looking adorable in his t-shirt and short. I knew he only slept in his boxers. We didn't say anything. I couldn't stand to look at Paylor _or _Peeta.

When we got to the Capitol, the Training Center was too familiar. I went into my room, locked the door, and tried to sleep.

I was awoken to the door opening. Peeta walked in shyly.

"Paylor needs you at the rooftop."

Two Peacekeepers took me to the rooftop. I couldn't see where Peeta was anymore because of the Peacekeepers' burly large frames. The Peacekeepers left me at the rooftop and locked the door.

Paylor wasn't there.

The whole _world _was betraying me.

Then I felt two familiar arms engulf me in an embrace.

"I am _so so _sorry, Katniss!" Peeta was crying again. "I know this was a sick joke to you, but I didn't want to do it! It was Haymitch's idea, Katniss, I swear! And with you almost dead this morning, I felt even worse!" He wiped the tears out of his eyes and grabbed my hand. He led me to the space we sat in the 74th, when Peeta told me he didn't want to be a piece in their Games, and got down on one knee and produced a fire daisy.

Seeing Peeta, a fire daisy, _and _being on the roof of the training center got me lightheaded.

The last nineteen years of my life flashed before my very eyes.

Then I collapsed in a heap on the floor while Peeta took me into his arms.

It was good to feel his warmth again.

"Katniss..." Peeta whispered. "Katniss?"

"Y-y-yes?" I croaked.

Peeta maintained his one-knee position again.

"Katniss Everdeen, will you marry me?"

**Short chapter again. Sorry.**


	8. Chapter 8: A Sick Joke

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Peeta's POV:**

I knew this was a horrible idea the first time I heard it.

Yes, I thought it was a great idea to propose on the top of the training center, because it was a special place.

They hurt Katniss too much by taking her here and lying.

The least I could to was make it up to her with a ring and a fire daisy.

"Peeta..."

My heart sank. Of course she didn't want to.

**Katniss' POV**

"I don't know what's going on." I said. This was all a set up?

Peeta sighed and lowered the flower.

"I wanted to propose to you here. We had a lot of nice moments here, you know? But Haymitch said we'd never get you here without suspecting anything, so Haymitch came up with this crazy plan, and I said I didn't want to do that to you and-"

I grabbed the daisy and kissed him to shut him up. His lips were soft and soon our tongues were dancing together, and we were on the floor, Peeta on top of me. He pulled himself out of the kiss and looked into my eyes with his sparkling blue ones.

"Is that a yes?"

I gave him a soft kiss.

"There's your answer," I smiled. I smelled the flower and expected it to smell peppery like most fire daisies. But it smelled like Peeta, a sweet yet masculine scent and cinnamon. "Smells like you." I muttered.

Peeta lowered himself onto the floor next to me. "Sorry, I didn't get you a ring. Effie told me I had to, but I thought you weren't into that stuff."

"She doesn't know what a single fire daisy means to us," I told him. An icy breeze whirled through the air, and I inched closer to Peeta, seeking his warmth. He responded my wrapping me into a tight hug on the floor.

"I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever," Peeta gave me a small grin. "I said that before the Quell. Real or not real?"

"Real," I whispered. My eyelids began to get a bit heavy. I didn't mind sleeping here, wrapped in Peeta's arms. "Goodnight, Mr. Mellark."

"Goodnight, Mrs. Mellark."

**Peeta's POV**

After a few moments, Katniss speaks. I knew she wasn't asleep.

"Peeta, you'd never actually leave me would you?"

The question hits me square in the chest.

"Of course not! Why would you think that?" I ask, slightly offended.

"I thought you left me this yesterday. I thought you were never coming back and you never loved me." Katniss sniffles.

I turn her over to face me and wipe her small tears away.

"Stay with me, Peeta."

"Always."

Soon, her breathing becomes even and she is asleep. Our legs are tangled together and my arms are around her body. My face is in her hair, the hair that was so beautiful, the hair that was down, flowing like I loved it. Her head was on my chest. This position was so familiar to us from those nights on the train.

I wonder when she started loving me.

I watch her sleep the whole night. Looking at her never tires, and now that we'll be with each other forever, I am finally happy.

**One more chapter to go!**

**Read 'n' Review.**


	9. Chapter 9: What Matters

**Fire Daisies**

**This story is not part of Panem High.**

**Final Chapter, Chapter 9**

**Katniss' POV**

We don't have a wedding. We just have a private toasting. No papers from the Justice Building, but that toasting made us more married than a little paper. Peeta moved into my house, and my room is now _our _room. When I have paralyzing dreams, Peeta doesn't get as frightened anymore.

We've only had one fight, and that was about having a baby.

It was simple: Peeta wanted one and I didn't.

I ended up storming off into the woods, even sleeping there, but Peeta finds me, I cry, he stops me and apologizes, and we go back home. I have a feeling all of our fights' aftermaths are going to be like that.

Now I have two fire daisies. I still keep the one I was gifted back in fifth grade, and the engagement gift. The latter was a fake flower, because Peeta never wanted it to die, like our love. It smells like him; cinnamon and sugar. It was probably in his house for a while. Peeta still has episodes. I am there to comfort him. I still have nightmares. Peeta is there for me. When Peeta paints, I go hunt. While I record information about passed ones in our Book, Peeta draws. We always bake together, though I'm still a failure at it. I think baking just gives us an excuse to get very touchy-feely.

I have lost Cinna, Prim, Finnick, Rue, Mags, Pollux's brother, Portia, Peeta's family, Peeta's prep team, Wiress, Boggs, the Leegs, and Madge and her family.

But I am happy with Peeta.

And he is happy with me.

And that is all that matters.

**Thank you for reading SOOO much! I have to say this is the end. Please review!**

**Author's Note: **

**This may not be my best work. It is just a small piece I worked on while I am on (and still on) writer's block for Panem High: Fresh as Men. Since this block is still nagging at me, I am making another story called Mystery Voice.** **I think you AU-people out there will like it.**

**Again, thanks for reading!**


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